Tales of adventures in quilting, gardening, photography and cooking from the Kingdom of Chiconia

Rolling Thunder part 5

More spraying. More taping. More masking. More spraying.

After the third and final coat of black, the next job was the silver swoosh up either side. Leaving the first mask in place, I created and taped around a template and then masked off the black that needed to be protected when I sprayed the silver. It took 3 hours in all to tape the swoosh top outline and then mask off the rest on both sides. I gave my back a break after that lot… I’d started at 6.30am, when it was cool, there was good light but no wind for the final black spray. By the time that coat was dry and I’d finished the masking it was 11.30am, the sun was high, the temperature was 28°C/82°F and the wind had risen, making further spraying impossible for the time being. So I took my extremely hot and bothered self inside for a period of recuperation.

After lunch, it was time to start the silver. The wind was intermittent, so I sprayed and waited and sprayed and waited. And next morning, after the final silver coat, here’s how it looks. The silver calls itself ‘chrome’, and it does have a good sheen and reflectivity, but it’s definitely not a chrome finish! Still, it looks pretty OK.

There’s a fair bit of adhesive residue to clean off before I can attack it with the clear lacquer. That’s the problem when you have to leave the tape on for a while. Hmm. Wonder what would be best for that, without making a mess of the new paintwork. Time to consult Mr Google, unless anyone out there has a good suggestion?

There were a couple of small patches of over-spray to clear up/spray over. A couple of places on the swoosh where I hadn’t bashed the tape down hard enough so there’s a minute bit of black creeping through, and the same for silver. But having taken care of the worst bits, I’m not anal enough to get in there with a teeny weeny paintbrush and take care of the tiny stuff. I’m also not totally in love with the shape of the top edge of the curve, but see comment above! It’s fine…

We have 10 days to go before our trip. Before anything else, I have to remask the rear lights; I took off the old tape, which was getting very thickly caked in paint, just to make sure it still would come off! I have to do at least 3 coats of clear lacquer over everything. Then it’ll be time to restore the hardware: catches, handles, registration plate, etc. I’ve resprayed the tray that sits at the front of the trailer and holds the cooler; that needs bolting back on too. We’re running a strip of hi-vis reflective tape around the back of the trailer – in red, of course! – and above the mudguards on the wheel arches. Hopefully it’ll make us even easier to see in the event that we reluctantly have to ride at night.

In the home stretch now. It’s good to know I can still do this stuff, but perhaps not too often…

Looking good, Kate. No wonder you are feeling chuffed about it (tired, but chuffed!) I have found olive oil to work very well with sticky labels and patches, but have never tried it on something like this. You must be getting excited about the trip.

I would normally use something like mineral turps or metho, but have no idea what it would do to the surface. If I use something oil based, I’ll need to clean the surface afterwards with soap and water before I apply the lacquer, or it won’t stick. I’m tempted to try eucalyptus oil, which is volatile and therefore won’t leave so much residue…

I think I’ll have to keep the camera in my shoulder bag while I’m on the bike so I can grab photo ops when they present. It’s too much hassle to stop, remove my helmet, open the top box, dig out the camera and then find that whatever it was has moved on! We should get some good panoramic views, though, as we’re taking all the wiggly roads to every high spot on our route 🙂

Looks fabulous. If all the friendly suggestions like tape and olive oil to get the residue off don’t quite work, there’s a nicely toxic substance called Goo Gone that takes anything off. Maybe it’s sold near you?

I reckon a bit of eucalyptus oil might do it, and a lot of it outgases anyway, due to being volatile. It used to take tar off our bare feet as kids, I think it’ll take care of a bit of tape adhesive. If not, I’ll see if we get Goo Gone here!

Another coat of lacquer on this morning, one more to go, and then I can stand back and admire it before putting back the hardware 🙂 I’m looking at the wheels now and thinking they need a bit of smartening up too…